Thoughts around reducing the monthly pull list

[ctowner1]

I'm doing another purge of my list soon, just because there are a few books that I'm buying and finding myself pretty apathetic about. The titles "on notice" are -

Thor

wow..Thor on notice? I'm continuing to love this book! I haven't detected any particular change in it compared to the earlier issue. Were you just not that hot on it to begin with?

e
L nny

[Darth Kramer]

I'm doing another purge of my list soon, just because there are a few books that I'm buying and finding myself pretty apathetic about. The titles "on notice" are -

Thor

wow..Thor on notice? I'm continuing to love this book! I haven't detected any particular change in it compared to the earlier issue. Were you just not that hot on it to begin with?

e
L nny

It comes out so infrequently and I find myself having to re-read the previous issue or two to remember what happened, so I ask myself why I'm buying it monthly and not just getting it in trade. I'd probably enjoy it more that way.

[JohnMayo]

I'm at the point where the number of comics I'm getting each week exceeds the amount of time I have to read them.

I've only have one week this year where I got less then two dozen comics and four in which I've gotten over four dozen comics. I seem to always be behind on reading my new comics.

So, I think that I'm going to start cutting back on what I'm getting.

I haven't decided what and where I'll make the cuts other than starting with Simon Dark. It isn't a bad title but it also isn't a title I feel I need to be reading.

While I'm not ready to drop Skaar, Son of Hulk yet, it too is one that I'm reasonably certain I could like without read each month.

I've got about 8 drawer boxes full of back issues I want to read and a huge stack of trades and hardcovers. So, as I find jumping off points on titles, I may start taking advantage of them.

[Webhead]

I finally decided to trim my pull list. Things finally came to a head, space enjoyment, time and cost have finally gotten to a point that I am willing to makes some cuts.

I felt the only way was to draw a hard line in the sand. No waffling , no bargaining, no exceptions.

Here is the list of comics I've cut from my pull list

Astonishing X-Men
Battlestar Galactica
Daredevil
Doctor Who
Flash
Ghost Rider
Green Lantern Corps
Hulk
Moon Knight
Ms. Marvel
Official Handbook of The marvel Universe (not monthly but it was still on my pull list)
She-Hulk
Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane
Supergirl


This still leave about 20 on-going titles.

Before I made these cuts it took a lot for me to drop titles, I was always in a mindset that I would ride out the bad times and wait for a title to get better. But as I looked around my comic room and had to negotiate long boxes and piles of trade I new I had to do something. So I looked at what I was getting and decided to stop reading titles that I did not look forward to reading. To stop getting titles I was getting just because....

[comicm]

So I am close to $300 of cutbacks now. Must of these cuts are not because I am not enjoying the books anymore but because I am so far behind and that makes me depressed. I will apply Bob's advice and if I get caught up on a title and really love it I will hunt it down in dollar bins and on MyComicShop.com.

I am also on a huge back issue kick right now so I am reading a lot of my old books again.

[BobBretall]

I find it fascinating that everyone has such different tastes, which is why any reviews/opinions John & I do are just that, OUR opinions. For instance, Chris Gallo is dropping Daredevil, that evoked a "WHAT?" from me, but I'm sure was a very valid drop for him.

Nobody has 100% overlapping tastes, I either agree with or can see the point of most of the stuff Chris is dropping, just not Daredevil.

I'm guessing it's because it's not much like a super-hero book (and has not been for a long time). I find that kind of refreshing, but if I was looking for a super-hero, not urban noir in red tights, I can really see why someone would drop DD.

[HassanT]

I find it fascinating that everyone has such different tastes, which is why any reviews/opinions John & I do are just that, OUR opinions. For instance, Chris Gallo is dropping Daredevil, that evoked a "WHAT?" from me, but I'm sure was a very valid drop for him.

Nobody has 100% overlapping tastes, I either agree with or can see the point of most of the stuff Chris is dropping, just not Daredevil.

I'm guessing it's because it's not much like a super-hero book (and has not been for a long time). I find that kind of refreshing, but if I was looking for a super-hero, not urban noir in red tights, I can really see why someone would drop DD.

I bet for every book I don't think is great, there is someone out there that loves it. I think this is more apparent as you shrink your pull list. Although, I agree with Bob on the Daredevil. That is one of my favorite comic books. Ever since the relaunch, I felt that title has been consistently great, which is difficult thing to accomplish.

With the cuts I have been making over the past few months, I now can start getting caught up with my backlog of trades!! I have noticed that with titles that I have dropped with the recent DCBS order but still getting the previous pre-ordered issues, I am either skimming through those issues just to finish it or just put it WAY BACK on my stack to read behind trades and other comics. What do others do in this situation?

And like Bob said, if I want to get back into a title later, I just go hunt for the back issues. Honestly, that is one thing I miss doing. My monthly list was so huge that I didn't need to hunt often for back issues. That is part of the fun of reading comics.

[Webhead]

Yeah DD was a tough cut but I was never the biggest Daredevil fan. But I was just as equally shocked when I heard that you cut CAP. I understand how you feel that this CAP is not your CAP but my jaw hit the ground the floor when I heard you were cutting it. I've been enjoying the heck out of Burbaker's CAP

And like it been said before there is always the dollar bins and sales at my LCS. In fact the more I think about it this could be a good thing. It will give me something to look for at conventions. It has been a long time since I had to go back issue diving in the cheap bins. The only holes in my collection are issues from the early 70's or earlier.

[BobBretall]

Yeah DD was a tough cut but I was never the biggest Daredevil fan. But I was just as equally shocked when I heard that you cut CAP. I understand how you feel that this CAP is not your CAP but my jaw hit the ground the floor when I heard you were cutting it. I've been enjoying the heck out of Burbaker's CAP

I did not cut Cap. I did mention (in the context of picking my Top 10 comics if I was to ONLY buy 10 comics) that Cap would not make the list because he's not "my Cap". I still get & enjoy Cap, I'd cut a LOT of Marvel books before I made it to Cap, it's just not at the tip-top.

And like it been said before there is always the dollar bins and sales at my LCS. In fact the more I think about it this could be a good thing. It will give me something to look for at conventions. It has been a long time since I had to go back issue diving in the cheap bins. The only holes in my collection are issues from the early 70's or earlier.

To this point (and the one Hassan made in the post above) an advantage of trimming back on books bought "new off the rack" is that I too can (for the 1st time in years) burrow through the 50-cent bins and actually find cool stuff that I do not have yet. There was a long time where I didn't even bother because I had pretty much everything.....

[Webhead]

I did not cut Cap. I did mention (in the context of picking my Top 10 comics if I was to ONLY buy 10 comics) that Cap would not make the list because he's not "my Cap". I still get & enjoy Cap, I'd cut a LOT of Marvel books before I made it to Cap, it's just not at the tip-top.

like the kids say now a day "Opps, my bad" maybe I should listen more carefully. For some reason I got it in my head that you were going cut CAP

Cap has always been my number two guy in the Marvel U and is my third fav Marvel title right after Amazing Spider-Man and The Avengers. So I cannot even fathom not getting Cap

To this point (and the one Hassan made in the post above) an advantage of trimming back on books bought "new off the rack" is that I too can (for the 1st time in years) burrow through the 50-cent bins and actually find cool stuff that I do not have yet. There was a long time where I didn't even bother because I had pretty much everything.....

The only problem I foresee with cutting back and looking for those issues I did not get from back issue bins is it will force me to keep better track of my comics. So I will know exactly what issues I need to get....

[HassanT]

Even with adding a few new items to my list, I am at only 52 comics for my preliminary order for December. To put things in perspective, at one point I was getting 89 comics per month. So I have successfully been able to reduce my monthly pull list.

Of course, this now means I can add without guilt Seriously, I will be adding comics to my list most likely, but my goal I try to maintian the balance.

[JohnMayo]

I've started to compile a list of the different titles I'm getting these days and tagging them as ongoing, limited series, one shot, ending, dropping or sampling. I was surprised how much of the list wasn't ongoing titles but things that are much more finite in length. It really backed up my theory that by cutting down the number of new titles you add you can really cut back on your spending over time.

[HassanT]

I've started to compile a list of the different titles I'm getting these days and tagging them as ongoing, limited series, one shot, ending, dropping or sampling. I was surprised how much of the list wasn't ongoing titles but things that are much more finite in length. It really backed up my theory that by cutting down the number of new titles you add you can really cut back on your spending over time.

I 100% agree with your statement. And there is a direct correlation with that and the reason why comic companies publish so many new series and limited series.

[atomic99]

I started trimming titles at the beginning of the year, mostly because I just wasn't reading them. No sense in buying Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk, and Astonishing X-Men when I still had 20 issues to read. So I decided to cut out the stuff that just sits.

New Warriors got the cut because, after giving it a chance, it never developed into MY New Warriors from the 1990s that I wanted to see (I get more of that out of Nova). And while the mystery of who Night Trasher was was interesting with its red herrings for awhile, after the mystery was solved, it just became another X-book all about when is Sophia going to join the team. It dragged for too long. Are they still making Iron Man out to be the baddie the team is rebelling against still? Ugh!

So I made a bunch of cuts but really these floppies are a drop in the bucket. Some months, the DCBS total is still way high. Too many Masterworks, Essentials, Showcases, and art books. I think I'll need to start to cut out the ones I just will never get to read.

[comicfreak]

I've trimmed the following series from my pull-list:

• Elephantmen
• Madman Atomic Comics
• Proof
• Savage Dragon

And the main reason for most of them is that I will not pay 3.50 for a comic.
I have to vote with my wallet.
The same can be said for series that I won't add to my pull-list (like from the current Previews):

• Incognito
• Death Defying Devil
• Terminator Revolution
• Contingent

It's not that I think these are bad, but I'll wait for a trade or a backissue bin.
And every time a series makes this jump (to 3.25 or higher) I'll drop the series.